We just watched this on Max last night. I read the second WIRED article when it was published and first heard about the story before he was identified. I have thought about the story from time to time, so I was excited to see a documentary on it.
https://www.wired.com/story/unsettling-truth-mostly-harmless-hiker/
To get around the paywall: https://12ft.io/

Has anyone else watched it or heard of this story? It's sad and complicated, and sticks with you. I think the doc was well done, reminded me of "Don't F With Cats" on Netflix.

Ill likely watch this tonight. I had a phone notification about this doc and saved it immediately. Looks interesting.

Sounds like he was "Mostly Crazy."

DallasTeleAg said:

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I saw "Mostly Harmless" and "...hiker", and got excited. Then realized what this was about after clicking on the thread and I am sad.

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It was almost, but not quite entirely unlike what I was expecting as well

Thanks for posting this. This appears to be right in my wheelhouse of things to watch.

MGS said:

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I thought this post was going to be about something from Douglas Adams

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Watched this last night so now I know who Douglas Adams is.

The Porkchop Express said:

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Came here for the Hitchhiker's Guide references, not disappointed

How many hours did my brother and I spend playing the Apple IIe text-only game? Way more than 42

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That Infocom game was great. Trying to get the Babelfish from the vending machine was so frustrating and fun

91_Aggie said:

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The Porkchop Express said:

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Came here for the Hitchhiker's Guide references, not disappointed

How many hours did my brother and I spend playing the Apple IIe text-only game? Way more than 42

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That Infocom game was great. Trying to get the Babelfish from the vending machine was so frustrating and fun

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Absolutely. and All the little funny things that the game would say when you tried something off the wall. I'd watch a documentary on that any day of the week. I think we always bogged down trying to get Marvin to do something on Zaphod's ship. My brother is a few years older than me I'll ask him if he can remember it better.

They could've dialed back on the Facebook moderator drama. Also, that ending was a big WTF.

Why do they make these docs about the Internet group geeks more than the actual mystery? They always come across very poorly and this show was no exception.

This Christy lady lookin' like Oswalt Cobblepot.

The Porkchop Express said:

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91_Aggie said:

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The Porkchop Express said:

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Came here for the Hitchhiker's Guide references, not disappointed

How many hours did my brother and I spend playing the Apple IIe text-only game? Way more than 42

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That Infocom game was great. Trying to get the Babelfish from the vending machine was so frustrating and fun

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Absolutely. and All the little funny things that the game would say when you tried something off the wall. I'd watch a documentary on that any day of the week. I think we always bogged down trying to get Marvin to do something on Zaphod's ship. My brother is a few years older than me I'll ask him if he can remember it better.

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Making the "not tea" is a vague memory of being very complex

bonfarr said:

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Why do they make these docs about the Internet group geeks more than the actual mystery? They always come across very poorly and this show was no exception.

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Because that is the better story.
These internet sleuths are so clueless about their lack of lives that they don't realize the documentary is really about them and their weird obsessions.

I thought the guys song was hilarious when he actually went through every day of the week.

He.reminded me of the nerd character on Jury Duty who.wanted to integrate electronics into his body, but he was real life.

I had no real interest in the actual mystery of dead guy and who he was... I kept watching to see the freak show of the sleuths

bonfarr said:

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Why do they make these docs about the Internet group geeks more than the actual mystery? They always come across very poorly and this show was no exception.

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I find it annoying when they do that too in other docs as well as the people are dangerously stupid, annoying, self-serving and catty, but in this case I think it's because there wouldn't have been any other story -- yes, the law enforcement guy was on the documentary, but they didn't really do anything except for the autopsy and trying to source leads. If they left out the internet sleuths, all there would be was that and the crowdsourced pictures of him on the trail. They needed a way to narrate the case.

The crowdfunding of the DNA test is what broke the case by trying to source leads in Louisiana instead of just the East coast.

If that doesn't happen, who knows?

I didn't really like the end. They threw out a bunch of accusations from "3 women" that he "abused" them, but no other details. All I could find about his arrest record was that he was arrested for shoplifting in 1994 when he was 18 years old. Not sure if they even booked him, since his fingerprints weren't on file (could have been a minor?). No domestic abuse, battery, or other charges.

He obviously had mental health struggles and whatever happened in his past, he felt the need to leave it all behind and live a simpler life, or find meaning, or even somewhere to die. He was, by all accounts, kind to everyone he encountered on the trail...

It just seemed like pissing on his corpse and I noticed they didn't try to add any veracity to the claims that he was "a monster" as the soy boy Atlantic CEO put it, aside from a single facebook post from someone he dated in LA. I'm thinking that they just did that because once they found out who he really was, there wasn't much more to the story, so they had to try and bring closure to it.

The post-credit bs with Cristy was completely fake bull***** It was cringe and funny at the same time. I would have edited that out, it was obvious what she was trying to do.

As far as true crime goes, I'd give it a B for the first hour and 10 minutes or so and a C- for the last 15.

This could have been wrapped up in 45mins max.

Once they determined who he was, why didn't they talk with anyone who knew him before he started hiking? Instead of only going off of other's posts of who he was; they didn't even interview his parents.

Also, I agree, the singing guitar guy looked just like the "inventor" from Jury Duty, and almost acted like him too.